Someone Is Reportedly Impersonating Trump’s Chief of Staff in Texts to GOP Bigwigs and Business Titans
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Federal officials are investigating an impersonation of White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday night.
Sources familiar with the matter told the publication that an unknown person contacted high-profile Republicans and business executives pretending to be President Donald Trump’s lieutenant.
The Journal reported:
In recent weeks, senators, governors, top U.S. business executives and other well-known figures have received text messages and phone calls from a person who claimed to be the chief of staff, the people familiar with the messages said.
But the messages weren’t from Wiles—and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the White House are trying to figure out who is behind the effort and what the goal is, according to some of the people. FBI officials have told the White House they don’t believe a foreign nation is involved, some of the people said.
“The White House takes the cybersecurity of all staff very seriously, and this matter continues to be investigated,” a White House spokeswoman said.
Wiles reportedly told associates that her personal phone had been hacked, which, though not her government device, nonetheless contained contact information for a slew of notable people. One legislator told the Journal that a text purporting to be from Wiles asked them to compile a list of people for Trump to pardon. While some of the texts seemed legitimate, others betrayed that something was amiss:
It became clear to some of the lawmakers that the requests were suspicious when the impersonator began asking questions about Trump that Wiles should have known the answers to—and in one case, when the impersonator asked for a cash transfer, some of the people said. In many cases, the impersonator’s grammar was broken and the messages were more formal than the way Wiles typically communicates, people who have received the messages said. The calls and text messages also didn’t come from Wiles’s phone number.
U.S. intelligence agencies are reportedly investigating the hack and subsequent impersonation. The Journal further added, “Some White House advisers have privately joked about how busy the impersonator seems to be.”
In August, Wiles’ email was hacked, supposedly by Iranian agents.
